A couple of weeks ago me and my friend started looking for new and recently released animated films that we could watch. We hadn't lately found time to watch stuff together, so we thought that it would be fun to watch some movies that would probably entertain us.
Indeed, especially when it comes to watching animated films, over the years they have been a fairly safe choice. As long as these films have enough redeeming qualities in them, watching them has been worth our time and has managed to put us on a good mood.
So this time we watched together Disney's animated film 'Encanto', a movie about a Colombian family with magical powers residing in a distant village. Together the family, living in a 'casita' is able to help others in their community and live good lives.
Plot-wise, the catalyst in the story happens when a daughter of the family, a 15 year old girl Mirabel (protagonist) is about to go through a rite that gives her magical powers. Like every other family member before her, her ceremony is going to unveil her special gift.
However, as the ceremony for her happens, she and her family find out that she doesn't have a special magical gift. As she goes through the rite involving her grandma burning a magical candle, nothing happens as Mirabel and the family is more or less in shock.
Not that much later, as she rather understandably feels disappointed and even rejected as a family member, things get worse. Mirabel notices that something's wrong with their house, as it keeps cracking for some reason and seems to be falling apart at any moment.
For our protagonist, the problem with this is that since Mirabel is the only one who sees this unraveling happening, the rest think she's crazy. This 'rejection' from the family leads her to to a journey in which she will do her best to find out what is happening and why.
So when it comes to the overall quality of the film, I have to say that both me and my friend managed to more or less enjoy the movie for what it was. 'Encanto', despite having a premise that isn't particularly organic or natural, is a fairly watchable movie.
Indeed, there's no question that as usual (a Disney movie) production-wise, a lot of effort went to making sure that the film looks and sounds great. You have the best animators and the musical talents that worked their butts off (like Lin Manuel Miranda), which shows.
At the same time, when it comes to film's quality, there's no question that the story is a bit lackluster and doesn't make that much sense. You have elements in the story that are pretty muddled and the movie also suffers from messaging issues that are questionable.
After all, especially when it comes to the matriarch who is outraged that her granddaughter doesn't have special skills, that was pretty bad. This felt to me that the movie sends a wrong message to kids who might think that they're not worth being loved unless they are 'special'.
Still, when it comes to the film as a whole, if you don't pay too much attention to issues like these, there's a good chance that you'll be able to like it quite a bit. The positives aspects in that case manage to outweigh the negative ones, which aren't necessarily that serious.
After all, especially when it comes to the film's vibrant colours and catchy songs, these are what the kids (and adults) will likely appreciate. These are the things that work, so if you're able to ignore the issues with 'Encanto's' script, you'll probably end up enjoying the movie.
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